Cursed In The Shadows
Prologue: Scrollsinger, a librarian's assistant in the Royal Library of the Rainforest, carefully arranged the scrolls in their proper order, for the fifteenth time that day. His colleague, a NightWing named Graceful, was busy at the desk helping dragons check out their scrolls. As he rounded the corner, he was surprised to see Graceful sitting on the floor reading a scroll titled, How To Write Poetry'. Scrollsinger was curious, as he didn't know Graceful wanted to write poems. "Hi, Graceful. How are you doing?" "Good as ever, Scrollsinger. You?" "I'm fine. Marvelous day out, isn't it?" "Why, yes." Graceful replied, marking her place in the scroll and coming over to rest one of her talons on his. "Yes, it is a marvelous day out, made even more so, with you here." Graceful said, smiling at him gently. "Your mind is nervous, Scrollsinger. What's troubling you?" "What? I'm not n-nervous! I'm just excited about... the uh, upcoming strawberry festival!" he lied. "You're nervous. Besides, whenever you lie, your thoughts turn green." "My thoughts turn green? Seriously?" "Yeah, a weird, lime green color, mixed in with some dark green and neon greens, but always green." "Uh, oh." "So, anyway, what are you nervous about? And don't you dare lie." "Fine. I'm nervous about our, you know, our dragonet." "Ah. I understand. But we'll get through it. Together." "I hope so." "Me, too." ''Several months later... '' "Our dragonet's not gonna have any strange or weird powers, is he?" "No. I don't think so. We didn't put his egg under the moons." "Ah. Yes. Do you want to name him?" "Sure, Scrollsinger." Several minutes later, their dragonet hatched. He was tiny, and dark gray, with bright green eyes. "Awwrk." he squeaked, nuzzling against Graceful's talons. "I have just the name for him. Nightstar." "Nightstar. That's a good name, Graceful." Scrollsinger said. Nightstar squeaked a few more times, before falling asleep in Graceful's talons. Then Scrollsinger whispered, "We did it, Graceful. Together." Chapter 1: ''Three years later... Nightstar's parents dropped him off at the entrance to Jade Mountain Academy, flying away after checking that he knew that he was to write to them at least once a month. As a hatching day present, his mother had given him a necklace with a pouch full of Skyfire on it. Now he was here. Nightstar looked around, wondering if he knew any of the other dragons around him. He saw a few NightWings he recognized, but they were making fun of a SandWing with oddly colored scales, pale gold, like normal, but with brown triangles over the pale gold. Nightstar rushed over, and heard part of the conversation: "Why don't you go back to the desert where you belong, sand eater!" "Yeah, stupid! Go back to the desert!" The SandWing didn't reply, but Nightstar could tell that he was angry, by the way that his tail was twitching. "Hey! Stop!" he shouted, pushing past several dragons making their way into the school. The leader, a NightWing named Sunslasher, growled, "Oh yeah? So what if I don't?" "Then I'll sock you in your snout!" Nightstar noticed the SandWing muttering something, and then Sunslasher started clucking like a chicken, flapping his wings, running around in circles, and ramming his snout into the ground. "Bawk! Bawk-Bawk-Bawk-Bawk!" Sunslasher squawked, glaring up at the SandWing. "Haha!" the other NightWings laughed. "You didn't have to do that." Nightstar said, sliding up to the SandWing. "All right." he said. Then he muttered something else, and Sunslasher stopped acting like a chicken, and growled, "You dare insult me, SandWing! You'll pay for that!" "If you tease this dragon again, I'll ask him to make you be a chicken again!" Nightstar growled back. "We'll see." Sunslasher hissed, pushing past the other NightWings and Nightstar. The NightWing stomped into the school, and the other NightWings followed. The two of them were the only dragons outside now. "Sorry about him. I know him. His name's Sunslasher, and he's a bit arrogant, thinking he's better than everyone else, even the queen, just because his parents are Royal Advisors. My name's Nightstar, by the way. What's yours?" "Desolate." the SandWing replied. As they walked into the school, Nightstar saw Fatespeaker, the false NightWing Dragonet of Destiny, and said, "Hi, Fatespeaker." "Hi, Nightstar. And the other one is... Sandstone?" "No, Desolate." As they walked past Fatespeaker, Desolate muttered, "Everyone confuses me with my older brother." The SandWing looked up at Nightstar, his eyes glittering. "I'm going to the library. See you around." The SandWing left, and Nightstar headed to his cave. He found a golden orange SkyWing laying on the rock ledge, and said, "Um, hi." "Hello." the SkyWing acknowledged, looking at him with bright yellow eyes. Nightstar chose a ledge with mosses on it, faced the SkyWing, and asked, "What's your name?" "My name's Warbler, at your service." the SkyWing said, with a smile that was all teeth. "Nice. Mine's Nightstar." "Pretty." the SkyWing said, unfolding himself from his ledge and stepping off of it. "I'm going to the Prey Center. Coming with?" "Maybe later. I'll stay here for now, but thanks, Warbler." the SkyWing nodded, and walked out the door. Nightstar read over his welcome scroll, and saw his Winglet, which included Warbler, an IceWing named Freeze, a SeaWing named Flounder, a MudWing named Sienna, a RainWing named Amazon, and a SandWing named Heatstroke. Nightstar finished reading over the winglets, then stuffed the scroll into his bag and headed to the library. Chapter 2: Nightstar got to the library, feeling calmer as he entered, remembering the library in the Rainforest where his parents worked. "Hi, Starflight." he said, walking over to the blind NightWing. "Hello, Nightstar." the librarian said. "Would you like to look around?" "Yeah. Um, I'm not sure what to look for. Do you have any scrolls on animus powers or anything like that?" "Yes. We have one that has several different animus enchantments and animi in it. The title is ''Animus Histories." ''"Thanks." Nightstar walked over the shelf and found the scroll. As he was walking back to the desk, he bumped into a familiar SandWing. "Hi, Desolate." he said. "Hello." Desolate said, staring at him without blinking as he walked past. It made Nightstar feel very uncomfortable. "What have you there?" the SandWing asked, flicking his gaze down to the ''Animus Histories ''scroll that Nightstar was clutching in his talons. "Just a scroll." "Title?" "''Animus Histories." ''Desolate narrowed his eyes, and said, "Very well." Nightstar walked to the desk, and Starflight asked, "Something wrong?" "No. Just Desolate acting all weird, and being kind of creepy." "Ah." Starflight stamped the scroll, and handed it back to Nightstar. Nightstar stuffed the ''Animus Histories ''scroll in his bag and headed to the Prey Center, planning to get a snack before the classes started. A few minutes later, Nightstar got to the Prey Center, grabbed a mango, and popped it into his mouth. '''I miss eating mangoes already! Then the gong for the classes rang, and Nightstar ran to his first small group discussion class. Chapter 3: Nightstar got to his class, and immediately noticed that a MudWing, SeaWing, and a SkyWing were there already. Nightstar sat beside the SkyWing, who he recognized as Warbler. The RainWing arrived, and the RainWing's scales were a dark foresty green, mixed in with sky blue and indigo. Nightstar waited for the SandWing and IceWing to arrive, but they seemed to be dragging. The teacher, a MudWing who looked familiar to Nightstar, started the class. "Hello, and welcome to your first small group discussion class. My name's Clay, and I'll be your teacher for this session. Since I don't know any of you, I would like to go around the circle and have each of you tell me-I'm sorry, us, your name, and a few things about you. Who wants to start?" "I'll do it." said the MudWing quietly. "Um, hi, my name is Sienna, I have five siblings in my troop, and my favorite color is sienna, like my name." "That's nice." Clay said. He looked at the SeaWing. As the SeaWing was about to speak, two dragons, an IceWing and a SandWing entered the cave. "Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier. Since you some of you seem to have a common interest of Animus Magic, we decided to switch a few students around." Nightstar looked at the IceWing and SandWing closely, and nearly fainted, feeling like ice was closing around his windpipe. Nightstar didn't recognize the IceWing. But their new SandWing... was Desolate. Chapter 4: "You may continue." Clay said, looking at the SeaWing. "My name is Flounder, I have two siblings, both upper ranking nobles in my Queen's Court. My favorite color is cerulean, which is a type of blue." Clay nodded, and flicked his gaze toward Warbler. "My name is Warbler, I am a soldier in Queen Ruby's armies, and my favorite color is crimson. Your turn!" Warbler said, turning to Nightstar. "Um, my name is Nightstar, I like to read, and my parents are librarians in the Rainforest." Nightstar turned to the RainWing, who was trying to stamp out spots of pale green in his or her scales. "Uh, my name is Amazon, I am a venom instructer in the Rainforest, but I came here to learn about the other tribes, and things like that." Amazon turned toward the IceWing, who was pale blue with spots of gray scales on him, like shadows. "My name is Cormorant, I am the son of an upper ranking noble, with a younger brother named Freeze, and I am a commander of my own troop of soldiers in the Ice Kingdom. Your turn, SandWing." Desolate sighed, and said, "I'm Desolate. I have one much more famous older brother, Sandstone, who went for at least a year without water, in order to help some other dragons. I like learning about animus magic and its effects on a dragon's soul." Nightstar felt sick, but listened as Clay said that they would have time to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. "I want to talk about animus magic." Cormorant hissed, glaring at Desolate. "Hey, what did Desolate do to you?" Nightstar growled, noticing that Warbler had gone pale. "Animi... are cursed." Warbler muttered. Cormorant growled, and said, "Nothing. But animus magic... is not something to fool around with, if you have it." Cormorant pushed past Nightstar, and stomped out of the cave, with the rest of the class following out behind him, and Clay following suit, leaving Nightstar and Desolate by themselves in the cave. "You don't have to stand up for me, Nightstar. I can take care of myself." Desolate said, pushing past him. "Desolate... wait. I-I was wondering... why do you seem so secretive?" "Why do you want to know?" "No particular reason. Just wondering." So I can help you.' '' "I'm not telling you. I feel as though I can't trust you just yet. Maybe later." Then Desolate turned and walked down the hall, his claws clicking as he walked away. Chapter 5: It was the end of the school year. Desolate and Nightstar had become quite good friends over the year, with Nightstar stepping in any time Desolate was teased, and Desolate helping Nightstar with his fighting skills. Every one of the students were standing outside, waiting for their parents. Nightstar was standing next to Desolate, waiting for his parents, when Desolate suddenly poked him with the side of his tail barb and hissed, "Follow me. I need to tell you something." Nightstar followed Desolate into the school, and the SandWing led him into a deserted cave with many claw marks gouged into the stone floor. Nightstar instantly remembered this as the cave where he and Desolate had worked on their fighting techniques. Nightstar saw that Desolate was staring out toward the plains, and beyond, to the Rainforest Kingdom. "What is it you wanted to tell me, Desolate?" "Nightstar... I'm an animus." "You... are an animus..." "Yes. By the way, what are you wearing on your neck?" "Just a necklace that my mother gave me for my third hatching day. It has skyfire in it." "Ah. I could enchant it to protect you from any enchantments that another animus might cast on you. May I?" "Sure. I don't mind." Nightstar took off the necklace and handed it to Desolate. "I-I hope this won't affect your soul in any way, Desolate." "Quit worrying so much, Nightstar! My soul is fine!" "All right... if you say so." Desolate folded his talons over the necklace. "I enchant this necklace to protect the wearer from any spell any animus might cast, not including themselves." Desolate looked at Nightstar, an odd light shining in his eyes that Nightstar wasn't sure he should trust. '''He wouldn't hurt me. He's my friend. Desolate gave it back to Nightstar, but didn't let it go with his talons. "Promise me that you will tell no one about this. Not your tribe, not the teachers, not your parents." "I promise." "Good." Desolate still had that odd light in his eyes, but Nightstar didn't think anything of it. Then he slipped the necklace over his neck. Chapter 6: Almost immediately, Nightstar felt a wave of pain crash into him, feeling some of his scales slowly change shape and color, and feeling the spikes on his neck get a little longer, and colder, which he thought was odd. He felt something pushing against his scales underneath them, and heard several ripping sounds as something pushed out. "Wha-What's happening to me? Why is it hurting so bad?" Nightstar hissed, looking at Desolate. The SandWing had a triumphant, insane look on his face. "Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that. I mentally enchanted your necklace to slowly and painfully change you into an IceWing the next time you put it on. Oops!" Desolate smiled cruelly. "Bu-But I thought that it was supposed to protect me from animus spells!" Nightstar growled as more of his scales changed. "Ahhh!" "Unfortunately for you, Nightstar, I didn't include myself in the enchantment. Which means I'm exempt! Haha! I'm a genius!" "You're mad! The Desolate I met in our small group discussion class wouldn't have done this!" "Oh, shut up. It's my magic! I can do what I want with it." "You shouldn't have-AHHRGH!" Nightfall roared as his tail spikes started coming in. "I shoudn't have what?" Desolate hissed. "You shouldn't have used your magic like this, Desolate!" Nightstar growled as more of his scales changed, then stopped. Nightstar yanked on the necklace until the leather chain broke, and dropped it onto the floor. Then he leaped at Desolate, slicing his claws on the SandWing's shoulder. Desolate hissed, and jabbed his tail toward Nightstar threatingly. "Come and fight me- If you dare, Nightstar!" Desolate cooed. Nightstar roared, and leaped toward Desolate again, planning to slice his throat, but Desolate pinned him on his back. "Too bad, so sad, NightWing. You've lost." Desolate dragged Nightstar over to the wall, and pinned him there. Several sharp stalactites broke off of the ceiling of the cave and flew towards Nightstar, stabbing themselves through his wing membranes. "OWW!" he roared. "This way, I get to have some fun with you, NightWing." Nightstar thrashed, trying to get free. "Now, now, NightWing. Stop fighting. I wouldn't want you to get any more hurt." "Yeah, probably 'cause you want to kill me!" "Exactly." "You-You horrible brainless son of a toad! I was your friend! I-I stood up for you every time you were teased, or made fun of, and this is how you repay me?!" "No! You were never my friend! You were using me!" "What? How dare you!" "Oh, I dare." Another stalactite snapped off of the ceiling, and, as Nightstar watched, transformed into a double-bladed dagger with rubies embedded in the hilt. Desolate flicked his talon, and the stalactites pinning Nightstar to the wall yanked themselves out of his wing membranes, letting him fall to the floor before dive bombing him and cutting him with their edges, like several round, icicle-like razors. 'So,' ''Nightstar thought, stumbling upward and fending off the razor-stalactites. '''This is how I die...' ''He growled, and launched himself toward Desolate, nearly impaling himself on the double bladed dagger. "Desolate, I know you're in there somewhere. Please come back." "No. The Desolate you knew is gone. Now, go ahead and grovel, NightWing. I'm more powerful than you anyway, and I could kill you with just a thought if I wanted to. But I ''don't want to, because, I may still have feelings inside for you, so instead, I'll just torture you until you die!" Desolate stared at Nightstar for several minutes. Then the dagger shot toward him and started slicing him across his scales, on his legs, his wings, his tail, his underbelly, and the sides of his neck. Nightstar collapsed, and the dagger paused, then shot toward Nightstar again, and slashed itself deep into Nightstar's left eye. Nightstar howled, and clamped his talon over his eye as the dagger yanked itself out."You better run, NightWing." Desolate dragged him over to the exit, and threw him over the edge. "Bye, bye, Nightstar. By the way, I'll keep this." Nightstar saw Desolate holding the necklace, and smiling cruelly. Nightstar saw Desolate drop the dagger, but it dropped in a way that said it was doing something other than dropping. Then it shot toward him and embedded itself in Nightstar's underbelly, causing him to scream hoarsely. Nightstar landed, hard, in a thorn bush. He lay stunned for a few seconds, hurting all over, with thorns poking his snout and feeling the dagger press its blade against his insides, then got up, and stumbled in the direction of the Rainforest. Chapter 7: Nightstar got to the Rainforest, and collapsed from exhaustion on the bank of a stream, more of his scales changing as he fell. "Ahhh!..." he groaned, crawling along the bank and hoping to reach one of the villages by nightfall. He collapsed again, only a few minutes from the NightWing village. A patrol of NightWings flew towards him, and Nightstar whispered, "Help...please..." Then as he drifted into unconsciousness, the last thing he saw was the bright stars in the night sky coming to bring him home. Nighstar woke up coughing. One of the healers, a purplish black RainWing with a dark green underbelly and stars under her wings came over and said, "Hello, how are you feeling?" "Um, bad. Everything hurts." "I understand. I was a prisoner on the NightWing volcanic island several years back, so I understand the whole 'Everything hurts' thing." The RainWing smiled, her snout turning pink, then quickly going back to her normal color. "My name is Dreamcatcher. I'm a RainWing NightWing hybrid. What's your name?" "Northstar. I'm a NightWing IceWing hybrid." Nightstar lied. '''Soon to be fully IceWing.' ''he thought with a wince. "Well, welcome to the Rainforest, Northstar. I think you'll like it here." Dreamcatcher said, twining her tail around his, being careful to avoid the places that he had scratches. "Um, thanks, Dreamcatcher." "No problem. Roar if you need me." Dreamcatcher walked off to check on another dragon, this one a NightWing with a bleeding leg. Nightstar looked around the healer's hut, and saw a NightWing with a bandage on his chest, another very skinny NightWing with a bowl in front of her, her face turning green. A pale green and purple RainWing in the bed beside him had a very haunted look in his eyes, and was scribbling nervously on a piece of bark, his talons shaking, and his eyes darting around fearfully. Another RainWing was having an allergic reaction to hibiscus flowers, and the healer was telling her not to panic. Nightstar stared at the ceiling, and eventually fell asleep. Chapter 8: Nightstar woke up, seeing that all the other patients were asleep, and got out of his bed, intending to go outside. He collapsed, hissed softly, and stumbled toward the door of the healer's hut. '''I have to go. I can't stay here. Not if I keep changing. Besides, they'd probably kick me out, or they wouldn't believe me if I told them I was cursed.' '' "Hey, Northstar. What are you doing out here?" Dreamcatcher asked, sliding up next to him. "Just... getting some air. I'll have to go soon. I can't stay." "Why not?" "Okay. Promise me that you won't tell anyone, or scream, or anything." "I promise." "The reason I can't stay is because I was cursed." "What do you mean?" "My name isn't actually Northstar, Dreamcatcher. As for what I mean, I'm cursed to slowly change into an IceWing." "That's horrible! Who does that?" "Someone I thought I knew well, who I didn't." "What's your real name?" "Nightstar." "The son of Graceful and Scrollsinger?" "Yeah. I was at Jade Mountain Academy the last few months. Mother gave me a necklace for my third hatching day with skyfire in it." "That's cool. What happened?" "On the first day there, I met this SandWing... named Desolate. We were in the same winglet together, and we both enjoyed reading scrolls about animus dragons. Desolate helped me fight better, and, as it turns out, he was an animus. On the last day, Desolate brought me to the fight cave, where we had trained together, and asked if he could see my necklace. I gave it to him, and he enchanted it to protect it's wearer from any animus spells that an animus could try and cast on them. He made me promise not to tell anyone." "Okay... what happened next?" "I put the necklace on, and started changing. Desolate told me that he was exempt from the spell he had placed on the necklace, and that he had mentally enchanted it to slowly change the wearer into an IceWing the next time they put it on. I ripped it off, and we fought, but he beat me. He stole the necklace and tossed me out of the cave. Then I came here." "That's horrible! You didn't deserve that!" "Yeah. I-I-Aaaaahhhh!" Nightstar growled as his scales changed and his snout changed shape. "Changing... it's exhausting." "Oh..." "It's not your... ouch... fault. It was mine for being an idiot and not noticing that Desolate was going insane. If I had caught it sooner, maybe I could have-" "Nightstar, listen. Your friend... Desolate... if he is insane, I don't want you going anywhere near him. Please. Promise me that, Nightstar." "Okay...I-I... aarrrgh... Promise." "Thank you. Where will you be going since the other NightWings won't accept you if you change into an IceWing?" "The Ice Kingdom." "So I'll know where to find you, then?" "If you want to, then yes." "Thank you. Perhaps I will come visit you when you are settled in there." "Thank you, Dreamcatcher. I don't know what to say." Dreamcatcher laughed, and said, "If you want, I can fly with you." "No, the others in the rainforest need you more than I do. Stay here." "Oh. Okay. If that's what you want me to do. Before you go, do you need anything?" Nightstar felt Dreamcatcher place her talon on his. "No. I'll be fine. But thank you, Dreamcatcher." Nightstar stood up to go. Dreamcatcher stood up, too. "Nightstar... before you go, I want you to know that I'll be with you wherever you are and wherever you go." Nightstar gave Dreamcatcher one last hug, and flew off for the Ice Kingdom, leaving Dreamcatcher alone. Chapter 9: After several days, Nightstar looked completely like an IceWing, excepting for a dark spot on his snout, which didn't change, even after he waited for at least a week. He flew into the Ice Kingdom. For several months, he lived in the streets, until he met two IceWings, named Mammoth and Smilodon, who let him crash at their house for two years until he was able to get his own house. At the age of 5, he joined the IceWing army, and changed his name to DryIce because it sounded more like an IceWing name. To celebrate his survival of his first official battle, he got a tattoo of a wolf head on his right forearm. He moved next to a female IceWing named Viribus, and ended up falling head-over-talons for her, though she didn't really notice. One day, he saw Viribus sitting by herself and crying. He went over ad asked, "Hey, Viribus. What's wrong?" Viribus looked up at him, and hunched her shoulders. "Nothing." she muttered. "You sure?" "Yeah. I'm sure. Do I look fine?" "Well, no. What's wrong, Viribus?" "My mate... Asper... he ran off, but first, he smashed the eggs he had had with me, leaving me with not even one of my dragonets, save for Frigid, who hid under my polar bear skin blanket." "I'm sorry. Viribus... can I tell you something?" "Go ahead." "Viribus... I've, um, liked you. Since I first saw you." Viribus stared at him. "Um, yeah... I'm sorry for telling you that. I should go..." "No, no! Stay! I-I like you, too. Much better than Asper!" Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Fanon) Category:Content (VanquishedHydra4844)